Yu-gi-oh! INSURRECTION
by Neil Hammond
Summary: I've been wanting to do a post apocalyptic Yu-Gi-Oh! for quite sometime now. The basic concept of the story is 'What if Anubis Won'
1. Prologue

Yu-Gi-Oh!

INSURRECTION

PROLOGUE

Yugi Muto sat collapsed on the fissured floor of the KaibaCorp duel dome. His deck was now scattered, his duel disk having exploded. The concrete polymers of the dome's structure were falling around them. Above him, towered Anubis, a shale black anthropomorphized jackal, as tall as an office building.

Next to Yugi, sat Kaiba whom was just as exhausted as he was, clutching his arm in pain. Above on a catwalk, he looked up to see his friends, Joey, Tristan and Tea. With them was Kaiba's younger brother Mokuba. Behind them stood Maximillion Pegasus holding up two cards. Toon Dark Magician Girl and Blue Eyes Toon Dragon. Above him were the beings depicted on the cards' illustrations holding up a large chunk of debris. Only there was no duel disk.

He remembered now. Anubis, in this last attempt at Victory, his final shadow game was a duel where the monsters were real. However a game implied that both sides had a fair chance at victory but Joey Wheeler, Yugi's best friend had just tried to fight Anubis with his Gilford the Lightning and Gearfried the Iron Knight yet neither monster had left a scratch. The rules may have applied to them but they might as well have stayed with holographic monsters. This was no shadow game. This was a shadow condition.

"These Toon monsters won't last long," said Pegasus. "We have to get out of here while we still have the chance!"

"Yugi, I _know_ you can take this creep down!" called Joey's encouraging voice, still full of life.

"That's right, 'cause we'll be with you all the way!" called another voice. A more feminine voice. It was Yugi's childhood friend, Tea. She held up her hand, reminding Yugi of the smiley face she had drawn on all their hands. Joey and Tristan held up their hands.

"ALWAYS!" They shouted in unison. Yugi held up his hand showing that he also remembered. He was too embarrassed to say this to Tea but sometimes when he looked down at his hand, he still saw the ink.

"Fine! Fine! Let's go already!" cried Pegasus as he pushed everyone into the elevator of the duel dome.

Kaiba saw the doors of the elevator close on Mokuba's frightened face. He clutched at the locket around his neck. The one with his oldest picture of Mokuba behind the glass. A torn half of a picture of both of them in a chess game. He had to atone for his mistake for the sake of his brother. If only he had listened to him. If only he had listened to Yugi. How could he have understood the gravity of what was happening? How could he have known? He then saw it among the cards Anubis had scattered like litter.

"How can we beat a real monster?" Yugi's frightened voice, snapped Kaiba out of his trance. Kaiba picked up the card that he needed.

"How? _With_ a real monster! Yugi!" With his good arm, Kaiba tossed the card to him. Yugi caught the card in his hand and looked downwards to it. It's brown and black back graphic was facing upward, it's text, stats and portrait inverted.

"What is it?" Yugi asked with the hope draining from his voice.

"The only card that can beat him..." Yugi turned the card upward. Kaiba was right. Yugi was totally surprised that this was the card Kaiba tossed to him. He had expected to toss Yugi one of _his_ cards but instead Kaiba trusted Yugi with a card that he had come to love almost as much as he loved his Obelisk. Then again...Kaiba had a habit of letting Yugi use rare cards from his own collection to defeat evil psychopaths. Yugi, with all his might, held the card up.

"I summon Blue Eyes Shining Dragon!" Yugi's voice, now reinvigorated with courage echoed through what was left of the duel dome. The holograms did not do the beauty of this dragon any justice. Sleek and majestic, the marble white dragon of unmatched luster climbed into the sky, dissolving the shadows around it. The ultimate amalgamation of machine and dragon. Refined and perfect in all aspects, the dragon was a bright star against Anubis' night.

Another hand reached up to take the card. It was the Pharaoh who dwelled inside of Yugi's Millenium Puzzle. He smiled to the boy who's soul he shared a vessel with. The two then looked up to their weapon.

"DESTROY ANUBIS!" they both commanded in unison. "SHINING NOVA ATTACK!" Anubis looked up to the dragon and blasted it with his dark flames. The Dragon's Shining nova formed a bubble of light around it that no darkness could permeate. Several rays of light extended from the bubble, almost hitting Anubis. Any second now, Anubis would be neutralized. Any second now Anubis would be inert. No more.

The bubble then started to fade and lose its bluish hue. The rays were growing shorter, retracting. A great popping noise for a second changed the color composition of the isolated environment the Shining Nova created for the dragon, inverting it like a negative photograph or an X ray reading. The bubble created by the Shining Nova lost its structural integrity like a soap bubble popping at one one hundredth of the speed the human eye saw it. The dragons' radiance was gone. The white metal lost its luster. The jaws of Yugi and Kaiba dropped as their hearts sank.

"THAT..." cried Kaiba. "THAT'S NOT POSSIBLE! HOW CAN THIS BE!" How was irrelevant. Why was irrelevant. On that night, the darkness had won. Hitting the ground, the dragon shattered into unrecognizable shards as it hit the ground like a glass statue hitting the floor. The dragon was permanently dead. Darkness had won.


	2. Chapter 1

**Hey. Sorry for the long wait but I've been working on my novel. Thought I'd get the first chapter done to get the story rolling and go from there. Thanks so much for your patience.**

**CHAPTER 1**

Yuliana rubbed her eyes with her thumb and forefinger, her arm weighed down by her duel disk. Typically at this time of day, Yuliana would follow her duty shift by relaxing in her rack but her brother Yulian was very insistent that she help him train in his own dueling skills. He knew that his defeats outweighed his victories and that each cell of the insurgency was only as strong as its weakest duelist. She knew that as well and thus had to hide her fatigue better, preferring not to strike the sensitive boy with any guilt.

On her side of the field was Seiaryu, Hunter Dragon and two face down cards while Yulian had a face-down card of his own and a face-down defense position monster. Even with him standing so far away from her, she could see determination shape out his visage. Her brother had lasted much longer than she thought he would, much longer than last time and she was so proud of Yulian that it made her feel almost ashamed that she was about to win.

"I activate my face-down card, Dragon's Rage!" The holographic representation of the trap card turned upward and beckoned with light. "Now Seiaryu, attack!"

"Sorry, sis," said Yulian. "But I activate Negate Attack!" But as the card turned up, it suddenly turned to steam. Yulian looked past the steam and saw that Yuliana's second face-down card was now upturned.

"That was a good try, Yulian but I activated my Dragon's Bead. By discarding one card from my hand, I can negate your trap card and destroy it!" Seiaryu opened her pink beak-like jaws and fired a white ray that pierced the horizontal card opening a hole like a flame on a page. From the card emerged Yulian's Prevent Rat that disintegrated as soon as it appeared. "And because of my Dragon's Rage the difference is taken from your life points!" Yulian looked down and saw the pressure gauge on his duel disk that served as a life point counter, watching the needle drop 550 points closer to the red. "Now Hunter Dragon, attack!" Hunter Dragon swept across the dueling field and knocked Yulian off his feet to the floor as the needle fell to zero. Yulian landed on his shoulder blades knocking the wind out of his lungs. After a few seconds of coping with the pain Yulian pushed himself up when he saw his sister offering a hand that he accepted.

"Thanks Yuliana," said Yulian being pulled to his feet. "I guess it's no surprise I lost."

"Hey, you held out longer than I thought you would." Yuliana replied, patting her brother's arm. His expression did not change.

"I guess you thought I wouldn't hold out very long then."

"Hey," said Yuliana with a hint of sternness in her voice. "Don't be such a downer. You know what I meant." Yulian looked down, his expression still not changing. "Yulian. Look at me." She brought his chin up. "Come on. You okay?" Yulian couldn't help but mirror his sister's smile. "There you go." She playfully messed with her brother's long black hair. "Hey, I'm gonna shower up and take a siesta. Let's meet up in our bunk in an hour and we can take another look at your deck."

"Okay," said Yulian. "I'm gonna go out and get some fresh air. See you in an hour!" her brother waved back to her as he ran off.

Yuliana had looked after her brother for ten years. He was only four when the sky swarmed with monsters she remembered coming home from school and seeing him sitting in front of the TV as he always did. Only the news was playing and her mother and father were watching as well.

She remembered thinking it was a practical joke or some kind of movie that used fictitious news reporting as a narrative. She remembered thinking that the monsters that swarmed and marched across Japan were holograms or computer generated imagery. If only they had been. If only it had continued as a normal day. Within a week, her parents were dead and she and her brother huddled in the dark ruins of a city where refuge was emptily promised. Within a year, nowhere was safe. Nowhere was free.

Yulian crouched by one of the many deposits of sandstone that concealed the Insurgency's hideout. One of many cells scattered across the continent, this sole organization set on restoring _some_ of the old world. Before the world became a ravaged stage of perpetual war. Not a war with any weapons, but a war of monsters. The world was a board for the biggest shadow game ever.

"Hey, Yulian!" Yulian nearly jumped out of his shoes all the way to the top of the rock above upon seeing his friend Hunter crouched beside him. The barefoot girl cackled cupping her mouth with a caramel colored hand.

"You know one of these days you're gonna step on a rock and your plan will fail."

"Not today." She hoisted herself up to the rock as Yulian stood and brushed the dust off his vest. "You lost again. Huh."

"What made you guess right?" Yulian kicked a small stone and watched it bounce down the road.

"You know you should watch some of the other duels."

"And get reminded on how much I suck?"

"Hey. Even General Viper sucked at one time," said Hunter as she kicked her legs back and forth. "As did Matt and your Sister. Oh by the way. Congratulations."

"Congratulations for what?" Yulian hoisted himself up to join her on the rock, flattening the soles of his shoes against the rockface.

"Your sister got promoted. She hasn't told you?"

"I guess not." A breeze picked up their hair.

"Hey," she broke the silence. "Wanna see something cool?"

"Did the Insurgency capture Lord Kaiser and get one of the Egyptian God Cards?"

"Yes'" Hunter tilted her head with an ironic smile. "They have him tied up and are giving the card to General Viper. Also we got an aircraft carrier full of dueling bots." Yulian laughed.

"Are they sending some of those our way?"

"Yes and an ice cream maker." They shared a louder laugh. "Come on. Let me show you.

Yuliana paced back and forth along a craps table that held a map of what was formerly the United States. On the other side stood Matt, the cell's leader and Johnston, his second in command. Perpendicular to them on the short end of the table sat Layla, another girl of Yuliana's rank.

"What progress have we made?" Yuliana asked, leaning on the table with her hands.

"Time has been bought for us due to the fighting along the border of Pentecost and SDK-025 territory," Johnston replied revolving a brown skinned finger around the area that was once marked California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah.

"So far due to Lord Kaiser allowing semi-autonomy in this area, his troops have still stayed inside his own borders," Matt added pointing to the areas that once marked Oregon, Washington and Idaho.

"More good news is that both our cells in Montana have sent us their monthly logistics reports," Johnston continued. "But that's just our fancy way of saying 'still alive report."

"What about the fighting going on in the Southeast?" asked Layla, her arms crossed.

"No change," answered Matt, turning to her. "Atlantis gained a foothold in South Carolina but Lord Kaiser's troops took it back soon after. Now they're fighting the Supreme King's forces to hold onto the same territory."

"This is what you wanted to show me?" asked Yulian tucked with Hunter in a ventilation shaft. "We shouldn't be spying on our commanders," he whispered. "We could get in trouble."

"SHH!" Hunter swatted at Yulian's face, not looking up from the grill of the duct. "Don't talk while they're talking!"

"We know the northeast is still dark!" Yuliana slammed the table as she snapped at Layla. "Nothing could've survived that holocaust and nothing will live there again for thousands of years! They had to push the damn button. The government didn't want to admit that the only way to defeat these shadow creatures is by playing Anubis' sick game! A game that I must remind all three of you only three people are winning!" Yuliana stood upright and paced once again. "Ten years of fighting to gain back just a piece of the world we lost and what do we have to show for it? No new cells have been established in the last three and in those three years, Dakota, Texas and Wyoming have gone dark. I don't even want to think about how many duelists we have lost."

"I know that the progress we have made hasn't been ideal but we can't fall into despair."

"Progress? What progress? It's only a matter of time until-" All four suddenly looked up hearing the bolts of the ventilation shaft snap out, turning the shaft itself into a chute for two would-be snoopers. The two rubbed the parts of their bodies that hit the ground. Yulian, his head and Hunter, her back. "Yulian?"

"I-I'm sorry sis. We were just looking for ah-we wanted to see the cows."

"Yulian, what you heard, you weren't supposed to know," said Matt, walking over to them.

"If one of you is captured," Yuliana added.

"Yuliana. Yuliana." Hunter raised a hand. "It was my idea. Yulian knew."

"If he knew, he shouldn't have been a part of it," said Matt.

"He tried to stop me," Hunter defended. "Punish me. He was in a bad mood and-" a rumbling and the flickering of incandescent lights cut Hunter's voice. Sediment fell from the cavern ceiling and onto Yulian's shoulder. Layla stood up and bolted for the entrance followed by Johnston.

"Stay here!" Matt pointed to them both as he and Yuliana ran through the entrance. Hunter got up and ran after them.

"What are you doing? He told us to stay!"

"Do what I'm told?" Hunter rhetorically asked. "That'd be a first!" A growl puffed Yulian's cheeks as he jumped up and ran after Hunter. Turning around the entrance into a longer tunnel, they saw two duelists running past them

"What's going on?" asked Yulian.

"We're under attack!" one of the duelists cried, stopping. "Pentecost! They led Kaiser's men to us!" He continued after his friend.

"Come on!" Hunter ran after the two duelists. Shaking the fear out of his head, the boy ran after Hunter only to be cut off by a wall of fallen debris.

"I'LL TAKE THE LONG WAY!" Yulian ran through the tunnel as fast as he could, alerting the other duelists to the roadblock. He had to get to the main chamber. He had to get to his sister.

All he could do as he got there was scream in terror as he watched his best friend fall to a Pentecost member. Behind him, the monsters Magical Scientist and Cannon soldier turned to mist behind him. A red ring that wreathed the two duelists flew back into the pyramid shard embedded spindly figure's duel disk. The energy pulsated into his body causing him to rear his head and malnourished shoulders back with a new rush of energy before scratching the swastika tattoo on his shaven scalp that contoured the temples of his skull.

Hunter lied still, her life energy having completely drained from her. She was stiff and soon she would be cold. This was the penalty for losing. Yulian's nightmare had come true. Not only was his best friend whom was full of life not five minutes ago dead but the same fate would befall him and his sister. This was more than a shadow game. It was a shadow condition. For the only winner in the end was Anubis.


End file.
